Anime Cons

Ever been to an Anime Con? Whether you went as a fan or a featured voice actor, we want to hear about your experiences.

Yesterday, I was updating our profile on MySpace and noticed that several of our friends are anime voice actors, including Kyle Hebert. Interestingly enough, a couple of weeks ago there was an anime con, Anime USA Convention, and one of my MySpace friends, Crispin Freeman, was mentioned as having attended the conference with several of his colleagues and cast mates.

You can read more from Toon Zone’s account of the Anime USA Convention here. I myself have a vague idea of what these conventions consist of. I understand that fans often come to the conventions and dress up as their favorite characters and celebrity voice actors make appearances throughout the weekend convention.

Come to think of it, I believe there was an Anime (or perhaps, sci-fi) convention going on once when I was in Toronto five years ago in the same building (or thereabouts) as the filming of the Great Canadian Music Dream on the CBC.
I’d like to create some awareness for those of us who are not as familiar with the Anime voice acting art form, but I need your help.
Are any of you Anime voice actors or fans of them?
Leave a comment!
Cheers,
Stephanie

Stephanie Ciccarelli is the Co-Founder and Chief Brand Officer of Voices.com. Classically trained in voice, piano, violin and musical theatre, as well as a respected mentor and industry speaker, Stephanie graduated with a Bachelor of Musical Arts from the Don Wright Faculty of Music at the University of Western Ontario. Possessing a great love for imparting knowledge and empowering others, her blog serves an audience that wants to achieve excellence in storytelling through the power of the human voice. Stephanie was recently listed on the PROFIT Magazine W100 list three times (2013, 2015 and 2016), a ranking of Canada's top female entrepreneurs, and is the author of Voice Acting for Dummies®.

2 COMMENTS

Stephanie,
I’m a 40 year old Anime fan via my daughter and a big fan of Kyle Hebert. You can hear Kyle in Bleach, FMA, and Naruto on TV depending the episode airing. Kyle is a great talent. My daughter (in full cosplay gear) and I have attended a few Anime conventions in the Sacramento area and one in Las Vegas.
The most recent con we attended was the Sac Anime Convention in July where Crispin Freeman, Spike Spencer and Chris Patton all appeared and held workshops and panels. Plus there were about 1000 Anime fans dressed in their cosplay best. Itâ€™s like Halloween in July.
Spike is just one crazy dude and is probably the funniest guys I have ever seen. You have to sit in one of his workshops to really get a feel of how funny he really is.
Since the Sac con was a bit small, my daughter was able to hang out with Chris Patton and get some quality time with one of the best in the business. He is a real cool person. Oh, yeah, his band PLID played there as well. They are a real treat as well if you are into Electronica type music. Check YouTube for the Panda Song from Sac Anime and hear Patton sing a very funny song. Yeah it was me who asked him to sing… Chris has a Great voice.
Crispin is just God in the Anime business. He is not as approachable as the others, but I would imagine he gets attached by many freaky Anime fans. Crispin puts on a great Anime VO ADR Workshop.
In 2005, my daughter and I attended Anime Vegas where there were at least 30 VO artists on a single stage in a Q&A session. This was simply insane. We plan to attend this years Anime Vegas scheduled for Sept. 1-3 at the Cashman’s Center in Downtown vegas. http://www.animevegas.com
This year’s guest list includes:
Daran Norris (Vincent Volaju in the Cowboy BeBop movie, Heavy Load in Transformers, and Durge and Ki Adi Mundi in the Star Wars cartoons, Cosmo, Timmyâ€™s Dad, and Jorgen Von Strangle on Nickelodeonâ€™s The Fairly Odd Parents, Nedâ€™s Declassified as Gordy, the school janitor, and recurs as attorney Cliff McCormack on Veronica Mars)
Tony Oliver (ROBOTECH, VANDREAD)
Travis Willingham (FULL METAL ALCHEMIST, MUSHISHI)
Justin Cook (YUU YUU HAKUSHO, DRAGON BALL Z, BECK)
Maile Flanagan (The voice of NARUTO) in her first Las
Vegas Appearance!
Sam Regal (FATE/STAY NIGHT, NARUTO, MELANCHOLY OF HARUHI SUZUMIYA, THE THIRD: THE GIRL WITH THE BLUE EYE).
Aaron Dismuke (FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST, FRUITS BASKET, TRINITY BLOOD).
Christopher Sabat (Vegeta and Piccolo in Dragonball Z, Kuwabara in Yu Yu Hakusho, Jigen in Lupin III, Ayame in Fruits Basket, Alex Luis Armstrong in Full Metal Alchemist)
Colleen Clinkenbeard (Kiddy Grade (Ãƒâ€°clair), Case Closed (Rachel), Fullmetal Alchemist (Rose, Hawkeye), Lupin III: Dead or Alive (Olean der)
Johnny Yong Bosch (Adam, the Black Ranger on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Vash in Trigun, Kaneda in Akira, Ichigo in Bleach, Renton in Eureka Seven, Claus in Last Exile, Clair in Heat Guy J, Sakaki in Witch Hunter Robin)
And many others…
See ya there.
Jon

I recently went to Anime North 2009 and met Vic Mignogna. That was one of the best experiences of my life. Getting to go to the ‘cons and meeting these people is great for me, because they’ve been my heroes since my very first days of anime. And also because they will chat with you about getting started. They’re not afraid to tell you all about the industry, and how they got where they are. People like Vic Mignogna and Scott McNeil are the reason I got into Voice-Over in the first place.